


all that we know (of love and all)

by capebretons



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 16:47:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8409181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capebretons/pseuds/capebretons
Summary: About four hundred emotions flicker across Tyler's face at that, before settling on something resigned, something calm. But his cheeks are getting redder and redder the longer they stand out in the cold, and Jamie has to tear his eyes away."I was telling him," Tyler breathes deep. "I was telling Spez that I'm in love with you."The ground beneath Jamie's feet moves, but the world stands so still.





	

Jamie's coming out of practice. He'd stayed out on the ice an hour or so longer than the other guys, just working on his shot from the blue line until his face went numb. The sun's just dipped under the pine trees, and the sky's this calm lilac color, and Jamie would stop and look for a little while, because his mother always told him to appreciate the sunsets, but Tyler's leaning up against Jamie's car. He must have been waiting forever. His hands are shoved deep in his pockets, and he looks nervous, and he's not looking at Jamie.

This will not go well.

Tyler doesn't look at Jamie until Jamie's about two feet away, until Jamie drops his hockey bag on to the asphalt of the school's parking lot. Waiting.

"Hi," Jamie says, finally. 

Tyler blinks at him, slow. "Hi."

"What's," Jamie starts, and he really does mean to finish that sentence, but he can't. He can't. So, he tries again. "What are you still doing here?"

Tyler swallows, and his eyes find the concrete again.

Jamie wants to reach out, to trace his thumb across the jut of Tyler's cheekbone, but all he does is clench his hand. 

"I waited for you," Tyler says, and his voice rasps, and Jamie thinks  _ maybe _ .

"Yeah?" Jamie asks, daring to be hopeful.

It's the wrong move.

Tyler glances up when Jamie says it, and there's this twisted,  _ sad  _ look on his face, and it just - it doesn't fit the guy who was laughing in practice just this afternoon, who sang along to  _ every single song  _ on the radio, who had kissed Jamie in their shared hotel room after beating Shattuck two days ago. 

(God, that had been amazing. They were still sweaty, still high on some good old Minnesota high school hockey, and neither of them could shut up. Tyler had followed Jamie into the bathroom while Jamie showered, the both of them going over every play that had made them champions that night, talking fast and jumbling words and laughing, so much laughing.

Then Jamie had stepped out of the shower, his hair wet, with that one strand that always fell in his face. Tyler had reached out, like it was the easiest thing in the world, and combed it through the rest of Jamie's hair with his fingers. And when he was done, he didn't move his hand - he just pulled Jamie to him.)

"That," Tyler starts, and Jamie winces, closes his eyes, because he knows what's coming. "Friday was a mistake."

Jamie's not sure how that could have been a mistake. Tyler's lips on Jamie's throat, words about Jamie's hands slipping through his lips, Tyler grinding against Jamie's thigh as they made out on the only bed they bothered to use that night. That  _ couldn't _ have been a mistake.

But this is Tyler, and this is Jamie. Tyler's a king among men. Everyone at this school loves him, looks at him with the kind of awe only reserved for the  _ really  _ special ones. And, well. That's never been Jamie.

Jamie's too big for his skin and clunky and awkward, and he didn't really figure out this whole  _ haircut  _ thing until way too late in the game. His older brother had been way cooler, and being captain of the varsity hockey team lent less street cred than one might think. Jamie had friends - hockey friends, and a few people he shared classes with. He could be an athlete in one sphere, a classmate in another. People didn't need all of him at once.

(He'd have given all of him to Ty, though. Anybody would.)

"A mistake," he repeats, way later. Because he's too slow, really, too slow for someone who's got the same lightning in his skin that Tyler has.

"Yeah," Tyler says, with a deep scarlet blooming on his cheeks, on the tips of his ears. "I just. I don't know what we were thinking."

"Okay," Jamie hears himself saying, but now there's this rushing in his ears, because he'd been so stupid to  _ hope _ , to hope that Tyler had seen something special in him, something that might have made him worthy. "A mistake."

"Yeah," Tyler says again, hollow.

"I didn't think," Jamie mumbles, eyes on his shoes, but he forces his mouth shut before he humiliates himself any further.  _ I didn't think it was a mistake at all. _

"I'm sorry," Tyler says, and his voice is so soft. "I just... I'm really sorry, Jamie."

"It's okay," Jamie forces himself to say, because it's not Tyler's fault that Jamie's not good enough. That's not on him.

He finally looks up, though, and Tyler's eyes are on him, searching. Jamie just blinks, because he's really not sure what he's supposed to do right now. Drive home, probably.

"I have homework," he says, lamely, and nods to his car.

Tyler jumps from the car like it'd shocked him. "Oh, shit. I'm sorry. Yeah. Homework."

Jamie laughs awkwardly, unlocking the trunk for his hockey bag. Tyler's still just standing there while Jamie piles in, gnawing on the inside of his cheek to keep from saying something stupid.

"See you," Tyler says, as Jamie's about to turn the car on. "Um. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Jamie nods, because he will. It'll be in the hallway or in the cafeteria or in the locker room, and Jamie will avoid eye contact, and things will all go back to normal. "See you tomorrow."

 

Jamie does not see Tyler tomorrow. Jamie wakes up nauseous and barely makes it to the bathroom sink to throw up, and he hear Jordie groan in disgust from the next room over.

Jamie's mom comes in not a minute later, and does all the Mom-With-An-Ill-Child stuff - checking his temperature four times, getting him a glass of lukewarm water, and giving him a very unsatisfying hug. She declares that his temperature is fine, and he doesn't really feel all that nauseous anymore, but she still makes him stay home.

He spends all day watching  _ Happy Gilmore _ , because it's a movie Jordie always got to watch when he was sick, and it reminds him of being eight again. He naps, too, but he gets woken up a little after dark, when Spez drops by with all of the missed assignments from today. And then Spez stays for dinner, because that's what Spez does.

"Practice was a mess today," he's saying, while shoving lasagna in his mouth like Jamie's mom is gonna kick him out of the dining room at any moment. "Tyler was missing, like, every pass. And we did some shootout stuff, and he shot, like,  _ wide  _ left-"

"There's something wrong with that kid, I swear," Jordie agrees, stabbing at his pasta with more gusto than the situation requires. Jordie was a senior two years ago, back when Jamie and Spez and Tyler were the only sophomores on varsity. Jordie's out at college now, but he comes home every now and then because he doesn't know how to do laundry yet. "Back when I was captain-"

That makes Spez and Jamie slip into their Jordie voice, which is just higher-pitched, which doesn't make much sense, and they say in unison - " _ Back when I was captain. _ "

"Screw you guys," Jordie balls up his napkin and hits Spez right in the forehead. "Anyways. Back when I was-"

"Wait, Jordie," Jamie interrupts, only too happy to give his older brother some shit. "Were you captain?"

"Wait, what?" Spez catches on, widening his eyes comically. " _ You  _ were captain, Jordie? Why don't you ever talk about that?"

"Seriously," Jamie nods emphatically. "You should really talk about that more."

"When I was captain," Jordie says, pushing through the bullshit dutifully, because that's the only way you can. "Seggy was such a little shit."

"Language," Jamie's mom says, half-heartedly. She's watched enough of her sons' hockey games that she knows how it goes, at this point.

"Sorry," Jordie says, not meaning it. "But really. He was always bouncing off the walls, messing with Coach-" He stops for a second to shove another bite of pasta in his mouth, and talks without chewing or swallowing. "And Christ, that kid followed you around, Jamie, like a lost little puppy."

"He did not," Jamie mumbles, and he has to duck his head so nobody sees him blush. Because  _ no _ , Tyler didn't. Jordie's just saying that, because all of the upperclassmen knew Jamie was gone on Tyler. It was just - obvious. If Jamie could, he'd have big pink cartoon hearts floating above his head whenever Tyler walked into a room.

Tyler probably knew.

"He  _ so _ did," Jordie shoots back. "C'mon, Spez, you remember."

Spez shrugs, loyal to Jamie and Jamie alone. Because Jamie had never really meant to tell Jason, but sometimes things just kind of, like, become evident? Like, if you stare at somebody enough in the locker room, and if you grin like that when he texts you after practice, you're not  _ just  _ friends. 

And, well. Spez has driven a tipsy Jamie Benn home from enough parties to know just exactly what Jamie thinks about Tyler's biceps.

"Whatever, you guys must be high," Jordie sighs, wiping his mouth.

"That's probably you," Jenny says, and even Jamie's dad snorts at that, before Jamie's mom can tell either of them to hush.

 

Jamie feels fine the very next morning, which is good, he guesses. It's the middle of November, a week until Thanksgiving break, and Minnesota is fucking  _ cold. _ The roads are icy, the sides of the roads are piled high with snow, and Jamie can't leave his house without shoving on a puffy jacket bigger than he is, and that's a damn big puffy jacket.

He drives his truck really snow, because it's already snowing, or maybe it never stopped. And he pulls into the spot by the school's rink, even though the walk to first period is a little longer.  _ Because _ the walk to first period is a little longer.

Tyler's in his first period, is all.

When Jamie walks into Calculus, Tyler's sitting on Roussel's desk, and they're talking about some girl who did some thing last weekend, and Tyler's nose is still red from the cold outside. Jamie looks at his nose longer than he should. Rouss probably sees, but all he does is jut his chin out in greeting.

It sucks, just a little, that even though they're on the same team, they're not necessarily friends. Tyler's tight with Rouss and Sharpy and Stephem, and Jamie's cool with Spez and Oduya and Klinger. Sure, they'll wave at each other if they pass in the cafeteria, but unless they're on the ice, they don't have much to say to each other.

So it's a bit of a shock when Tyler says, "Jamie," with his voice quiet but clear. Jamie turns, and Tyler's standing now, only a few feet away. "Hey, man. Where were you yesterday?"

And it's something stupid like this that makes Jamie  _ ache _ , because he wants so much, so much that he's not allowed to have.

"I got sick," he hears himself saying. "I'm good now, though."

Tyler smiles, and something in that feels apologetic. Jamie won't focus on that. "Okay," he says, and it sounds, like, sad?

"Yeah," Jamie says, and they've still got, like, four minutes until class starts, and Tyler's not walking away yet, and Jamie is goddamn  _ floundering  _ out here. "How was practice, though?" He hears himself asking, even though Spez already said it was a shitshow-

"Really good," Tyler nods, enthusiastic for this change of subject. "We were really, like, connecting, yesterday."

Jamie has stepped into an alternate universe. "Yeah?" He asks. "That's, um. That's really good. I'm sorry I missed that."

"What a captain you are," Tyler says, probably aiming for that stupid flirtatious schtick that's been ruining Jamie's whole life since he was fourteen. It falls flat and ugly, hanging in the silence between them.

"Well, okay," Jamie says, and awkwardly juts his thumb out to his seat in the back of the room. "I'm, uh."

"Yeah, yeah," Tyler rushes to say. "Okay, man. See you later."

He's gone before Jamie can say the same, and Jamie can't help but feel like he's said something wrong.

 

They spend the first half of practice watching film from the Shattuck game. And even as he watches it, Jamie can feel the magic of it - the perfect pass from Tyler, and the bar-down shot Jamie made with that pass to kick off the game in the first period. When the sound of the goal horn floats over the speakers, Jamie can't help but look over at Tyler. Can't help but wonder if Tyler feels it, too.

"Always bardownski," Spez says, nudging Jamie's side with his elbow.

Jamie huffs out a laugh, and Tyler turns at the sound, and now he's just looking at Jamie, with this half-smile on his face, like he's wishing he could be in on the joke. And then something ugly flares in Jamie, because Tyler can't keep looking at him like that, can't smile at him like that, can't  _ kiss  _ him like that-

Jamie focuses on the film, and doesn't look at Tyler until they're finally out on the ice, and he's forced to. And despite what Spez had said the other day, Tyler's playing fine,  _ good,  _ and takes every pass Jamie feeds him with practiced ease. And Jamie even finds it in himself to fist bump Tyler after a good shot. Both of them look surprised afterwards.

Coach gives them a super long talk after practice is over, something about being good teammates, being there for each other. Jamie's been on this team for three years. He's gotten this talk before. (And honestly, he's pretty sure Coach just has a file of memorized speeches, all of them vaguely resembling the one from  _ Miracle _ .)

And then they're done for the day, and Jamie's walking out to his car when he feels a hand on his wrist. 

"Hey, Jamie," and of course it's Tyler. He's got this sheepish grin on his face, and Jamie's already nodding, because he's done this before, and he knows what's next.

Tyler always parks by the academic buildings, and when they get out of practice, it's usually a little under fifteen degrees out, and Jamie doesn't mind driving him over, really. It used to be just another five minutes with Tyler, with Tyler talking and talking and talking, and Jamie taking what he could.

"You played so good at Shattuck," Tyler says as he's buckling his seatbelt. " _Jesus_ _Benn_ , I'm telling you. We should make t-shirts."

"My name won't sell t-shirts," Jamie says, and then he rolls his eyes at himself, because Christ, he just sounds like Eeyore. 

"Shut up, I'll buy forty," Tyler scoffs, because he always gets like this after a good practice. Nobody can touch him. 

"You gonna wear 'em all at the same time?" Jamie smirks, pulling out of the parking lot.

"Nah," he wrinkles his nose. "I'm gonna make myself a quilt."

"It  _ is  _ quilt weather," Jamie nods, thoughtful.

"That was the most Jamie Benn thing you've ever said," Tyler laughs, short and loud, and Jamie finds himself blushing again.

"Fair," he sighs. "But, like, what would be a Tyler Seguin thing to say?"

" _ You're welcome _ ," Tyler shrugs, because yeah. 

"You're annoying," Jamie ventures to say, because sometimes when Tyler gets this confident, a little bit of that rubs off.

"Don't I fuckin' know it," Tyler sighs, long-suffering, and unbuckles his seatbelt. They're at his car, and Jamie parks reluctantly. Tyler salutes, which feels weird to see, and then he's gone, and Jamie's car feels much colder.

 

The goal horn sounds loud, louder in their home rink than anywhere else. And Jamie feels that instant relief, and can barely lift his arms in a lame little celly before he's being accosted by Tyler.

Tyler wraps his whole body around Jamie, screams into his ear,  _ what a beauty, Jamie,  _ fuck _ me _ , and he's grinning so wide. And Jamie feels like crying.

"Hey, hey," he says, his voice small, as more guys leap onto him, because yeah, Jamie just won it for them in OT, but, God, Tyler's grinning and sparkling and  _ shining,  _ and Jamie didn't think it would hurt like this. He didn't think it would hurt  _ this much _ .

And then he-

He shoves Tyler off him. It's too hard and too rough and everyone kind of flinches away from Jamie which has never, ever happened. The whole team's looking at him, uncertain, except for Tyler.

Because Tyler just looks fucking  _ shattered _ . His mouth's fallen open, and his are wide. His arms have fallen to his side, and Jamie would do anything to take that back, because drowning in everything he can't have feels better than realizing  _ he's  _ the one who made Tyler look sad like this.

"Jamie," Spez says, careful, and God, Jamie's gonna cry on the ice, isn't he? Christ, he's gonna get  _ so  _ much shit for this.

Tyler's  _ face. _

"Sorry," he says, to nobody in particular. And then, because he's still a captain, even if he's a shitty one, he adds, "Good job tonight, boys."

Nobody moves, and Jamie skates towards the bench alone.

 

By the time they've all showered and gotten changed, it's mostly forgotten. The music's up in the locker room, and everyone's talking at once, passing around the address of the afterparty Oduya's having. Jamie will go. He's got to, to, prove that he's not as awful as he was tonight. He'll find Tyler at Johnny's, he'll sit him down and tell him that he's really fucking sorry, because he is.

(He just - he couldn't handle it, right then. He can steel himself for Tyler, during practice and during first period, because he knows what he's about to get himself into. But those moments, the ones with the cheers of the audience and Tyler's breath hot against Jamie's cheek... He can't prepare himself for that.)

So he puts on his jeans and that fucking puffy jacket, and he's headed for the door, when Tyler's calling his name.

Oh.

He turns, and Tyler's standing at his stall, rushing to gather up his things. Jamie pads over, because there's no way he's leaving now. If Tyler wants to talk, wants to yell at Jamie, then, well. That's what's about to happen.

But all Tyler says is, "I'm really sorry."

Jamie blinks. "Uh. What?"

Tyler's blushing now, eyes on the locker room carpet. "For, um. I wasn't thinking, during the celly. I shouldn't have-"

Jamie would accept death with open arms at any moment, because now he has Tyler's  _ pity.  _ Tyler feels shitty, because he thinks he got Jamie's hopes up, and Jamie's going to fall in love with him because Tyler said  _ fuck me  _ after Jamie scored a game winner. 

Well, Jamie can't really fall any  _ more  _ in love with Tyler, so his pity won't do much here.

"You're good," Jamie interrupts, because this can't be real, and this can't be happening. "Seriously. I shouldn't have pushed you like that. That wasn't-" He struggles for the word, for just a minute. "That wasn't captainly of me."

He can see the restraint in Tyler's face, trying  _ so  _ desperately not to roll his eyes, even despite the conversation, because Jamie Is An Embarrassment.

"Okay," Tyler says finally, accepting that. That cautious smile is back on his face, like he's careful to proceed. "Okay."

"Okay," Jamie nods, feeling slightly relieved that this talk is over. "Um. Have a good night." He doesn't really have much of a need to go to Oduya's. Everything he needed to say has been said, and not much has changed, really. Jamie still loves Tyler, and Tyler wants nowhere near Jamie, and that's-

Well, that's something Jamie's learning to accept.

"You coming to Johnny's tonight?" Tyler asks, shifting his hockey bag higher up on his shoulder.

"Probably not," Jamie says, following Tyler out of the locker room.

Tyler stops, turns all the way around to frown at Jamie so he knows Tyler's disappointed with that answer. "No, Jamie," Tyler pouts. "Wrong. You're coming."

Jamie sighs. "I'm just really tired, and-"

"You know what always wakes me up?" Tyler grins, tilting his head up so he can really look at Jamie. "Shots and Kanye."

 

There's way too much of both at Johnny's. Vaguely, Jamie's wondering where this tiny Minnesota town got so much booze, but he's on his third beer and he's feeling, like,  _ good.  _ So. He's not all that bothered.

Sharpy's doing a dance that involves a lot of jumping and squatting, and Klinger's cheering him on, and Jamie's been talking to Rouss for the past twenty minutes, and these are the moments he lives for. When his team  _ feels _ like a team, and Jamie feels like he might not be  _ totally  _ fucking up as a captain.

He did fuck up tonight, though. He's not denying that. No matter how shitty he's feeling about himself, he  _ can't  _ take that out on his team. That was unfair, and he won't let it happen again. And he should probably apologize to Spez, too, because he shouldn't have just skated off, that was rude, and oh, yeah, there's Spez, and he's talking to Tyler.

Jamie's approaching the tail end of their conversation, about to ask what they're talking about, because Spez hasn't looked this intrigued since kindergarten, and Tyler's talking with his hands.

And because Jamie Is An Embarrassment (Part Two), he drops his beer. Tyler jumps, because Jamie practically spilled the whole thing on his shoes, and Jamie curses, dropping down to pick up the cup.

"Should I find paper towels?" He's talking to himself, more than anything, but Tyler looks absolutely terrified, and Spez is shaking his head super fast, and he's yanking Jamie away before anybody can say anything else.

"You are  _ so  _ dumb," Spez is screaming at Jamie, barely audible under the blaring Kanye. "God. That was, like, a new level of dumb."

"What?" Jamie's on a four-second-delay. "I need to find some paper towels. We just left Tyler covered in beer."

" _ So  _ dumb," Spez keeps saying, until he's made Jamie drink five glasses of water, pee, and call an Uber home. Jamie doesn't know what that means, and he still doesn't when he wakes up the next morning. It feels like an overreaction for just dropping a drink, but then again, Jamie doesn't get out much. Maybe that's, like, a big deal. He wouldn't know, really.

So he pushes the thought out of his head, and takes the world's longest shower. He thinks about Tyler and hockey and Tyler, none of which is news.

 

Monday morning comes sooner than it should, and Jamie's back at school, trudging through the snow to get to first period on time. And for the first time since that kiss in Fairbault, he's kind of looking  _ forward  _ to seeing Tyler. Because things are good now, and Jamie wants to prove that he can be Tyler's friend. He's going to be the best damn friend Tyler's ever had. He's gonna listen, and he's gonna support him, and he's only going to get a little sad when Tyler kisses somebody else.

But when Jamie walks into class, Tyler won't look at him. Hemsky waves, says  _ sup, captain,  _ but Tyler's got his eyes on the fluorescent lights above him.

"Hey, guys," Jamie says, and his resolve is gone. He goes to sit in the back row, and Tyler doesn't look away from the lights.

The same persists through practice, and it gets so bad that Tyler's told to practice with the second line while Eakin comes up with Hemsky and Jamie. Tyler looks fucking pissed, and for once, Jamie gets why. Tyler can play like shit all he wants, and he can laugh it off later, but he isn't fooling anybody. He's an emotional player - that's part of what makes him so good. 

After practice, Tyler doesn't ask for a ride. He just walks out of the locker room alone, shoulders slumped. And, okay. It was a shitty practice. Jamie knows that. But even if he has been in a weird mood, a friend doesn't let a friend walk away feeling like that.

Tyler's barely made it ten feet outside of the athletic building when Jamie stops him.

"You good?" He asks, because he's never been good at preamble.

"Fine," Tyler says, and his voice is shaking, and he's not looking at Jamie.

"You're  _ not  _ fine," Jamie decides, and because he's a Friend, he presses on. "What's up?"

Tyler winces. "Nothing's up, dude."

Jamie's close to giving up, because Tyler has always been stubborn as hell, and Jamie can't fix that. "Tyler, I can tell-"

"Did you hear?" Tyler interrupts, and he's finally looking at Jamie, which is such a shock to Jamie's system that it makes his footing falter for a moment. "What I said to Spez, at the party - did you hear me?"

"No," Jamie answers, honest. 

"Are you fucking kiddi-" He starts, then forces his own mouth shut.

About four hundred emotions flicker across Tyler's face at that, before settling on something resigned, something calm. But his cheeks are getting redder and redder the longer they stand out in the cold, and Jamie has to tear his eyes away.

"I was telling him," Tyler breathes deep. "I was telling Spez that I'm in love with you."

The ground beneath Jamie's feet moves, but the world stands so still. 

"What?" Jamie asks, and he feels the way he did, just so  _ hopeful,  _ scared to be hopeful.

"I'm in love with you, man," Tyler's gazing at Jamie now, with something of a helpless smile. "Shit. I've been in love with you since sophomore year."

"No, you haven't," Jamie says, because there's no way that someone as great as Tyler could see Jamie and think  _ love.  _

Tyler rolls his eyes. "Oh, Jesus, yes I have. Have you seen yourself? No, actually, have you seen yourself after you score a gamewinner? It's. Wow. You're fucking amazing, Jamie, of course I'm in love with you."

"But," Jamie has never felt less eloquent than this very moment. "After Shattuck-"

"I thought you didn't want to," Tyler looks like he's almost in pain, wincing as he talks. "I thought that maybe I'd, I don't know, overstepped. And so I tried to, like, do some damage control, and I made it so fucking weird, and I finally just tried to talk to Spez, because I wanted to fix everything, and then you were behind me while I was ranting about how I've wanted to be your boyfriend for  _ four  _ fucking years, Jamie-"

"You want to be my boyfriend?" Jamie asks, tentative.

Tyler smiles small, but just as hopeful. "Who doesn't?"

"A lot of people, probably."

"They're stupid. You're everything in the world, Jamie."

" _ You're  _ stupid," Jamie says, ruining the moment.

"This has already been established," Tyler sighs, and then reaches forward and kisses Jamie. 

Moment not ruined.

Tyler kisses like he's desperate for something more, all tongue and teeth and Jamie's shirt twisted in his hands. Jamie feels warm to his toes, and he reaches out and fists a hand through Tyler's hair. Tyler groans, quiet and only just slightly, and it makes Jamie weak. He breaks the kiss, though, just to tell Tyler he loves him. The grin he gets in return is enough to keep them both warm as they get into Jamie's car. 

They don't drive to Tyler's car right away.

 

They both come to practice the next day with matching hickeys. Tyler's gone back to his particular brand of enthusiasm, and Jamie hasn't ever been this happy to get a pass from Tyler. When Jamie scores, Tyler leaps on him to celebrate, and Jamie could never push him away now. 

And when the day is over, and they're heading back to the locker room, Tyler reaches out for Jamie's hand. Someone from behind them, probably Spez, says  _ fucking finally.  _ Jamie grins, and squeezes Tyler's hand. 

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to put them in Minnesota because I know that high school hockey is a Really Big Deal up there, but there's not much else of a reason, I guess!
> 
> Title is from "Big Black Car" by Gregory Alan Isakov, which is basically Jamie's POV through this whole fic. This poor kid.
> 
> Thank you all for reading and for how nice you've all been! I wasn't expecting any of it, but I appreciate it all more than you think!


End file.
